Jeremy Ayer

"Days of Threshold" is a photographic narrative about a country boy who invented his own dream world.
I use photography essentially as a narrative medium. Actually, since the very beginning of its history, photographers have been using this medium to tell stories. Throughout time, different narrative approaches were explored. One can identify at least two narrative forms: a linear narrative using many images to tell a real story – which took its roots in Life magazine in the form of photo essays – and a condensed form that presents a story in a single image, leaving more freedom to the spectator to rely on his own imagination. The latter is more conceptually oriented and mostly used by visual artists.
My project is displayed as an installation, telling the story in a non-linear, fragmented way. Pictures with various types of moods create an impression closer to an atmosphere than a story defined by a timeline. The pictures are printed on light paper and just pinned to the wall, letting the spectator the possibility to imagine the missing pictures of the story, leaving room for him to form his own analysis rather than dictating it myself, I propose a gentle intrigue with subtle evocations. The viewer is thus invited to participate to the process of editing in a light and playful way, as a double of sorts of the boy in the work itself, who constructs himself through his actions and creations.
This structure being set, I established my own playground, which allowed me to navigate through different photographic modalities such as portraiture, staged photography, documentary and fiction. Even if this entire story has been invented, I like using different photographic writings in order to challenge the viewer, forcing him to question himself.
I was also interested of how I could use story-telling in a contemporary photographic way.